Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

the moon above. Ben had no idea if he’d be able to actually use the thing effectively if he needed to, but it made him feel better to have something that he could use to defend himself.

Ben and Melody approached the village in silence, stalking from tree to tree. Melody was a hell of a lot better at maintaining cover and silence than Ben was. Stealth was something else she’d need to teach him down the road. For now, however, they had bigger fish to fry.

The silvery trees, outlined in the moonlight, cast their claw-like branches in stark silhouettes against the night sky. An owl hooted in the distance. The only other sound was the occasional snatches of song and harsh speech coming from the campfire in the village.

Tension rose inside Ben with anticipation of the coming battle. He allowed the pent-up nervousness to flow through him without resisting it. His thoughts were clear, and he enjoyed the cocktail of fear and excitement that pulsed through his veins.

He’d experienced this sensation before when planning a raid playing World of Warcraft, but this was the real thing. Ben and Melody were actually going to fight barbarians, facing death in the process.

They stopped behind the collapsed pile of stones where Ben had first waited to attack the sentry, around a half-hour earlier. But he stopped short as he realized there was another mountain ogre there now. Had the other barbarians noticed what had happened to the first guy? Nothing at the fire suggested the barbarians were more panicked than they had been.

The new sentry paced back and forth, muttering and cursing in his guttural language. Ben couldn’t make out the words, but the sentry seemed annoyed, even for a mountain ogre. The barbarian kicked the dirt with each step and spat occasionally at the wall of the hut beside him. Like the previous sentry, this one also carried a scimitar. Every now and then, he’d swipe the scimitar through the air, cutting through imaginary enemies. Ben swallowed hard as he watched, imagining what that blade could do if the barbarian managed to catch him in the belly with it.

Ben watched, trying to figure out what was going on. Since this sentry hadn’t sounded the alarm, Ben suspected that the sentry he’d taken out must have been a known slacker. Maybe he was in the habit of taking off during sentry duty, and this new guard was pissed that he was having to cover for the first sentry.

At least that meant Ben and Melody hadn’t been discovered yet. It also meant they’d have to take out this sentry too, and preferably quietly. Ben didn’t want to cast Drain too much before reaching the center of the camp. He needed all the mana he had in order to cause the maximum possible pandemonium when they entered the village.

Ben gave Melody a signal with his left hand, and they retreated up the hillside a short distance.

“Can you snipe that sentry with your wand?” he whispered, once he was sure they were out of earshot.

Melody cocked her head, puzzled.

“Can you strike him and kill him without drawing attention?” Ben clarified.

Melody shook her head. “The light and noise of my wand will be noticed for miles in this dark and quiet woods.”

He nodded. “Yeah, good call.” He was starting to see that magic and spells were not the solution to every problem.

Light and noise discipline was something he’d remembered hearing about in military documentaries. Soldiers couldn’t just go firing their most powerful weapons in the middle of the night, even when it might seem like the simplest solution for the situation. Going undetected was just as important. The rules of warfare were evidently not so different in this world. Stealth skill was what he needed—some quiet movement and a quick blade to the sentry’s throat would solve their dilemma.

The mountain ogre’s stature was just as great as that of the other one Ben had killed. And with that nasty looking scimitar, combat in close quarters simply wasn’t an option. Even with a scimitar of his own, Ben didn’t fancy having his first attempt at combat with these weapons against a creature twice his bodyweight—not when he’d almost been killed during his previous attempt. He wasn’t anywhere near perfect enough to never make mistakes, but he never made the same mistake twice.

Ben would have to use Drain. But this time, he needed to be much more careful. He couldn’t risk the sentry attacking him, or worse, calling out to the other ogres.

Melody held her wand ready. “If anything goes wrong, I will attack him,” she whispered.

“Even if it draws the others’ attention?” Ben asked. “There’s no way they wouldn’t notice that spell.”

Melody nodded, her expression resolved. “That would still be better than letting you die at that ogre’s hands.”

“Thanks. And good call.” It was reassuring knowing she had his back. More than that, there was something sexy about it, too. Such strength enhanced Melody’s beauty, in his humble opinion. She could really handle herself. But thoughts like that were the last thing that needed to be on his mind.

They turned and crept back down to our cover behind the stones. With some hesitation, Ben set down the scimitar behind the rocks. He needed both hands free to perform this spell as quickly as possible. If it came to blows, he didn’t think the scimitar would help him that much. And he could always take this guy’s weapon after he’d taken the bastard down.

Ben focused his energy and clenched his fists, holding his Drain spell at the ready. He could see the sentry’s strands from here, but they were faint in color. He assumed that was because he was out of range.

The green of the thug’s physical strength appeared in Ben’s mind’s eye, and he focused on it until the color was deeper and more opaque. Then he waited until the sentry turned to face away from Ben.

When Ben was ready, he slipped over the stone barrier and hurried